October 2006 SHARES Meeting

On Friday, October 20, about sixty people from more than thirty SHARES libraries gathered at New York University for a day-long SHARES meeting. Dennis Massie of RLG Programs updated attendees on the 2005-2006 net lending reimbursement process, recent activities of the SHARES Executive Group, the migration of ILL Manager users onto new resource sharing systems, and the merging of the RLG Union Catalog and WorldCat. OCLC product manager Dana Dietz briefed everyone on work being done to enable the OCLC interlending infrastructure to support SHARES activity. Eric Childress of OCLC’s Office of Research introduced the group to an array of projects being carried out by Programs and Research scientists. The day concluded with a spirited discussion of the continuing benefits of SHARES participation and a look ahead to the promise of exciting new developments, as RLG Programs staff builds a joint work agenda with colleagues in OCLC’s Office of Research.

Agenda & description

10:00 - 10:30

Coffee and Mingling

10:30 - 10:45

Welcome and Introductions

Lucinda Covert-Vail, Director of Public Services, NYU Libraries

10:45 - 12:15

SHARES Update and Discussion

Working groups; net lending now and in the future; transition issues; experiences of folks migrating to new systems; archiving in ILL Manager; ILL Manager features being considered for WCRS and ILLiad; SHARES voice in future products and services development; etc.

Lunch—on your own

1:30 - 2:30

OCLC Research

An overview of OCLC Research—who they are, how they work, what they do, and what becomes of their efforts. Some details of how RLG Programs staff and OCLC Research staff are setting a joint work agenda and already collaborating on some initiatives.

Break

2:45 - 3:15

The SHARES Necessities, or, Is SHARES Still Necessary?

Discussion of the value that SHARES participation has delivered up to now; the promise of enhanced value inherent in the new structure at OCLC (RLG Programs wedded to OCLC Research, backed up by priority, personnel and funding, with a direct line of input from RLG Programs partner institutions to the Programs and Research agenda-setters); and whether or not the same or equal benefits can be found in other resource sharing partnerships or environments.

Dennis Massie, RLG Programs [ ppt: 71.5K, 10 slides]

3:15 – 3:55

Hot button topics

Reports from attendees (time permitting)

3:55 - 4:00

Wrap Up and Adjourn

We are a worldwide library cooperative, owned, governed and sustained by members since 1967. Our public purpose is a statement of commitment to each other—that we will work together to improve access to the information held in libraries around the globe, and find ways to reduce costs for libraries through collaboration.